MANILA, Philippines — First Gen Corp., the new majority owner of the geothermal power producer PNOC Energy Development Corp., is eyeing geothermal development projects in Indonesia, with two offers for partnership already on the table, a company official said.

Indonesia has huge potential for geothermal power, said Ricardo Tantoco, the new First Gen executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“For the longest time, Indonesia has developed only about 803 megawatts of geothermal power at seven US cents [a kilowatt] versus gas and coal at about four to five US cents,” Tantoco said. “And now that prices of gas and coal have reached their record high, geothermal is an opportunity, which is why they created their medium-term plan where they plan to develop 2,000 megawatts by 2012.”

First Gen president and chief executive Federico Lopez said Indonesia’s geothermal potential was even greater than that of the Philippines, which is the world’s second-largest producer of geothermal power.

Tantoco said PNOC-EDC could enter the Indonesian geothermal market as both operator and developer.

“The potential in Indonesia is great, but it also depends on the Indonesian power market, which had some trouble over the last few years in attracting investors. But Indonesia is starting to regain steam now,” he said.

Even outside of Indonesia, Lopez said, geothermal power is gaining popularity, even becoming an industry “darling,” due mainly to the high prices of oil and coal in the world market as well as global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.